Oliver Lee Memorial State Park

A beautiful ( overpriced ) state park with some of the friendliest employees I've ever met. The trails are nice and range from difficult to easy, the campsites are well maintained and many of them are level. The restrooms were way on the other side of the campground from where I was camping, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I'm sure those that were right next to it wouldn't share that complaint.. ( I wouldn't have wanted to be right next to them .. though they were very clean and the showers were better than most .. there was a slight smell in that area ). When reserving online, you are hit with extra fees, and I believe the total came to $24 for a primitive campsite for out of state guests .. which is ridiculous. The visitor center has nice displays, and I love that some of the historical features of the area have been kept. I've never paid this much money for a primitive campsite in my life and don't plan to again. There are some great free campsites on BLM land just outside the state park boundaries. Great showers and awesome attendants, custodians, and hosts. The people who work at this state park made it almost worth the price. Bravo.

This is in the desert but it has great ramadas for a day cookout. The cost is $10 for a day stay. They also have overnight camping. The have a short trail it’s starts out being an easy kept trail. When it ends it becomes a moderate but still easy to follow trail. It is a pleasant walk with rattle snake warnings. The trail ends at

Oliver Lee has a nice visitor center and desert garden with labeled plants. Getting there takes you through a pretty bad area and you might question if you are headed to the right place. The hiking is very limited and really has only one very strenuous trail up into dog canyon then a few very short trails that couldn’t even fill a half day. The dog canyon trail is 5.2 miles to the top gaining 3,200’ of elevation then back down making for a full very strenuous day. It is beautiful landscape but the challenge is not for everyone. And the trail maps they have available are ridiculously tiny, you need reading glasses to read the 1/4 sheet of paper and does not have the complete dog canyon trail on it. There is a nice desert campground with very sweet camp hosts and spacious gravel sites, some with utilities and picnic table shade shelters, some without. There are a couple of scattered pit toilets which were actually cleaner and nicer than the one “comfort station” with flush toilets and showers. It was dirty, smelled bad and the showers were scalding hot (not adjustable) and barely spit out enough water to rinse off in. Granted both times I showered were the end of the day after all the families had washed their kids, so mess is expected. But stink? And the showers were just bad. The campground was said to be booked full the whole time we were there but about a quarter of the sites were unoccupied because people who had reserved them didn’t show and didn’t cancel so that someone else could use the site. There were people who had to camp in the overflow parking area with no amenities because of folks who weren’t thoughtful enough to cancel when they couldn’t show up. Please don’t be those people! Cancel if you can’t be there even if it is the same day and you can’t get a refund. Parks are busy and people are waiting for sites.

The views are amazing! There's a short trail to a picnic table if you don't want to hike for 10 hours to Cloudcroft but still want to enjoy the beauty.

This is one of my favorite State Parks in New Mexico, close to Alamogordo, White Sands National Monument and White Sands Missile Range. Clean camp sites and bathrooms with hot showers. The best sites are the non electric/water sites, that over looks WSNM. Small but nice museum, nice hiking trails from the campground. Camp hosts are very helpful, and firewood is sold from their host sites.

Great campground, nice facilities and beautiful view. 5 miles outside of Alamogordo if you need replacements. Whitesands National Park 20 miles south. Will come back if we get in the area again

LOVE this state park!! Well maintained, great camp host, love the trails. The path to the bathroom was lit up! Who does that?! I want to go back!

Very nice campground, with large sites offering privacy even in the desert. We first had site 32 and later 38. Beautiful views of the Sacramento Mountains one end and White Sands National Park on the other. Hard but beautiful trail into dog canyon, especially the thrilling “eyebrow.” Unfortunately, signage stops after mile 4 or so. And it’s probably not a good idea to take your dogs into Dog Canyon. The path is strewn with fist-sized rocks that are tough on paws.

This State Park was absolutely beautiful at the base of Dog Canyon. This is a fairly small park that is set up nicely. Each spot has full hookups and a walkway to the comfort station. There are 2 trails right in the park. One a very simple nature trail and the other that takes you through the canyon and national forest. Views from the top are so incredible! The comfort station was clean and there were 2 showers to use. The water wasn't very hot and there was barely any water pressure but it was still a good option. White Sanda National Park is about 30 minutes away in a small town. On a clear day you can see the sand dunes from the campground! I took off a star because I was so shocked to see dog feces everywhere. Both hiking trails, the walk way to the comfort station, you really had to watch where you walked. It's unfortunate that people don't pick up after their dogs!

Just a review on parts of the trails. Did not go all the way up the Dog Canyon trail. It is steep and rocky. I found my walking stick with a rubber end on it to be helpful for balance and stabilization going up and to make the descent easier. So that's my recommendation. I don't always use a walking stick, but it was very helpful here - also helpful if you have to fend off some wildlife. JS We went all the way up the Riparian Trail. It was really cool - in more ways than one! We did go up there in the Fall, and the stream was quite active and full. The park office was ok, with some remnants from a prospector that lived on the grounds, as well as some information on Oliver Lee, the infamous Cattle Rancher that was tied to the factions that were involved in the Lincoln County War, as well as tied into the disappearance of Las Cruces Attorney, A.J. Fountain (whom was representing the faction which opposed O.Lee), and Fountain's young son. Not to mention that the men accused of murdering Pat Garrett, and subsequently found innocent, by one of Lee's associates, had worked for Oliver Lee. O.Lee owned the land, and ran a ranch, on which the park is situated. The Oliver Lee ranch house is available to tour with reservations ahead of time. It's a pretty cool little spot at the base of the Sacramento Mtns. It'd be really cool to go further back into the canyons, as they did back in the day to avoid their adversaries. A few years after Fountain and his son disappeared, the skeletal remains of a grown man and a young boy were found deep into one of these canyons (Dog Canyon?) and claimed to not have been those of Fountain and his son by.... wait for it.... friends of Oliver Lee.... A lot of history in "them there hills"....

Love, love, love it here. Friendly staff and very clean and well kept bathrooms. We have stayed in sites 24 and 21. Both were sloped sites and required some tweaking to level out; but it was worth the hassle for the views. Site 24 is closer to the bathrooms by several yards; but you can hear the heat/ac/transformer units from there and it is a constant hum. Site 21 felt rather "remote" due to the way it sits a bit higher than the lower loop and is spread out nicely. The surrounding plant life does block some of the distant mountain view's; but again this is nitpicking on my part. Will gladly return to OL

Usually LOVE coming here! Decent showers, hot water for eva. Not creepy. No trashes in the bathroom but i suspect its because some of yall are filthy animals lol. Pretty quiet, decent space. Most are $10 and have a table, some also have a covered table for the same price. Most that I have been to have fire rings. BRING WOOD. $5 a bundle there at the camp hosts site. Along with a cute book exchange deal. Last night I booked a site. Regular process, no changes there. Fairly easy online with a $3.50 service fee of some sort of course. When I got there excited for a shower, the bathrooms were completely closed. Sewer issues I suppose someone shoved some trash down the toilets since they didn't have trash cans lol. On awakening, there was a small dog with a pink collar releasing his bowels on my site. No owner around, although we did see her walking AGAIN later and she still did not keep her dog off of our site. I called this morning to see if it was repaired, still no with no end in sight per whoever answered the phone. No one even bothered to mention there were no working showers until I called this morning. Still took my money all the same. Sad because thats why I went there. All in all, decent place!!

Oliver Lee State Park may be a good one...if you are in an RV. The thick layer of what I'll call concrete rock meant I couldn't pitch my tent. Also, the fact that the gates don't close had people coming in around midnight. Don't think they had reservations and they left after an hour of bright lights and making noise. I ended up going to a hotel. Very disappointed. The pics look pretty there.

We camped at Oliver Lee for two nights in our RV. Nice, quiet, and clean campground. Sites with power are limited and come prepared to need to do some significant leveling at the site. Volunteers are super friendly and there's a nice hiking trail for the park. The comfort stations are kept clean. If you're a T-Mobile customer, try to grab a spot on loop B for service.

Pleasant state park. Great views. Well maintained trails. Campground was clean. Had well maintained facilities. Very large campsites. Easy access to White Sands. A good choice for camping in area.

Dog Canyon! Oliver Lee Memorial State Park seems to have been owned by this guy who died and left all this land to the state. It's a park at the base of the Sacramento Mountains, about a twenty minute drive to White Sands National Monument. When I went, I got a space that had no facilities- no water or electricity. It's funny, there's a water spigot down the road, which means that they've run water lines out through here, but not available for a RV hookup at the site I went to. The campsites all had little shelters with cement picnic tables. There were restrooms, one for the entire park. They offered showers, toilets, and TP. The park HQ was poorly equipped to be a park HQ. Their maps didn't really show what was going on, didn't show the trails. They didn't offer any camping stuff, or souvenirs. They had a little nature display that seemed mostly in disrepair. The park rangers were happy to answer any questions, were enthusiastic about having out of town campers, and even served up coffee and cookies in the morning! The park was beautiful with a dramatic back drop of the mountains looming large over the campsite. I ventured about and found these deep holes bored into the rock that were used as grindstones and water collection by ancient natives. Cool. The best part was the park hosts offer their plastic sleds and wax for you to borrow and take to White Sands and avoid a rental charge! You can use these plastic sleds to ride down the sand dunes.

Loved our three night stay here! It was easy to maneuver in and out of the park in our 30' 5th wheel. Showers were hot, and grounds are really clean and well maintained. Nice and quiet. We pulled in at night and was able to choose from numerous first-come-first-serve sites with the Self Pay station. Very dog friendly! Our dogs loved hiking with along the few trails around the park. We had about 3-4 bars of Verizon LTE - and we were able to work and stream just fine. We will definitely be staying here again!

Oliver Lee State Park was probably one of the best camp sites I've ever stayed at. There were a lot of amenities that made our one-night stay very comfortable. The camping area was clean and spacious, there were sites with shaded picnic tables, and every site had its own water source and was located near trash bins. The camping area even had plenty of bathroom stalls and showers for free, and beautifully landscaped and lit pathways (we didn't need headlamps to get around at night). I highly recommend camping here as an option if you're planning to visit White Sands National Monument or passing through this area.

We just stayed one night at the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park Campground. Made our reservation online and did not need to check-in with anyone and the campground was organized very well and very easy to find our campsite. Very clean and pretty campground with great views. Our site had access to electricity and water which was really nice for it being really hot in June. Would HIGHLY recommend. Nice table for us to eat our meal at. Also just a 30 minute drive from White Sands which is great. No issues at all with the bathroom. Overall a great campsite!

Nice place for couples or families Very clean and well kept They Have hot showers on one side and restrooms on both side Hope We will be back soon The best campground we've seen and stayed so far

I miss this park already! Dog friendly and must be on a leash! They have two hiking trails - the Riparian nature trail that's .5 miles and the dog canyon trail that's 5.5 miles. Decided to stay here while planning a visit to the white sands dunes thats about 30 mins away. The nearest town is about 12-15 mins away that has all your restaurants, gas, groceries and Walmart. There are restrooms at the visitor center that's only available during open hours and there's a restroom with showers located between the two camping loops. There are also vault toilets located in loop B. The view is amazing! And the stars at night are the best I've seen, of course on a clear sky night. We got cloudy skies our second night so we didn't get to enjoy the stars. Also, when there's a thunderstorm, the winds are really really crazy. Almost thought our tent wasn't going to make it, but 5 hours later, we survived. Leave a voicemail, if you're trying to contact them and they'll get back to you pretty fast. The park wasn't that busy when we had visited, maybe total 6 campers total at a time. Which is great, felt like we had the campsite all to ourselves! There are some sites that provide shade and some that don't. There are some that provide water and electricity or just one or the other, so pay attention to which site you want! Our site, #2, didn't have any shade so mornings and afternoons were brutal. But we also had a cloudy day so that helped alot! This park really is a hidden gem. The view of Lincoln National Forest is amazing and the park ranger was nice! The park is nicely maintained too. The nature Riparian trail is also nice as it takes you along the empty rocky creek that could have potential flooding and Frenchy's historical home! It's a loop that starts at the visitor center. I would stay here again if I were to ever come back!

$5 per vehicle (was informed of cost; I was a guest) for a day's hike and your choice based on your health and experience. Always check with Visitor's Center's Desk for weather warnings..... area arroyos may be an issue. Original "homestead" site interesting. RV camping available and showers ... apologies I am not familiar with cost and rules Area creatures require caution but the winged creatures are beautiful Alamogordo good for nearby restaurants... Pizza Mill has great Garbage Barge pizza and Waffles Fries ... ice cold drinks too McD's for quick eats and other cuisines in area too

Positive: The location is good. It's 1/2 hour from White Sands NP. The camp sites are spaced out. Negative: Not much to do at the SP. Sites are not remotely level and crushed rock. Very dusty. Overall, still better than any of the other options in the area.

Location of some of the most pitched Apache battles, this state park is busting at the seams with history. The visitor center has some very interesting dioramas, complete with union army swords, guns and other artifacts. The park itself has year round water flowing, making it rich with plants and wildlife. If you want to take the trail to the top, watch out... its a really steep climb. Beautiful New Mexico at its best.

This place is truly a hidden gem. We came around 6pm because we had some time after checking into our hotel, and found out it was 24hrs. The self park box was closed so we didn't even have to pay the $5 fee. A hike here feels like being transported to the mountains in South America. The trails are scenic and beautifully maintained. This is a great place to watch the sunset, too.

This is a beautiful campground at the base of the Sacramento Mountains near Alamogordo NM. The vista from our site is spectacular-I would guess 20-30 miles. Being from Michigan, this desert site was a real treat. All the flora, fauna and terrain we don't see at home. It would have been an awesome stay, except: Men's shower/bathroom in DIRE need of repairs; - One of outside building lights not working - Shower and sink faucets all need replaced - some completely clogged (with sediment?), others barely flowing - Big shower control handle falling apart - shower would not turn off - wasting water! - Small shower missing curtain - Interior lights on outside photo sensor and indoor motion sensor, do not come on during day. Skylights not enough light in showers - Motion sensor does not detect in showers, lights turn off mid-shower! - Shower water pre-mixed, no separate hot/cold knobs. Inconsistent temperature day to day. First day, TOO HOT. Next day, TOO COLD. - Our site would not accept tent stakes into the ground. Too compacted and rocky. - All our camp "host" had to say to us was, "Your dog has to be on a leash." Not "Welcome." Not, "How can I help?" We had just arrived, I think our (very mild) dog was out of the truck a whole minute. C'mon lady, be a little hospitable, and at least give us some time to set up and get organized before laying down the law! Please do camp upgrade construction during the off-season. Very disruptive. Noisy construction equipment early morning. Too many good sites out of circulation. Bathroom/showers closed during the day. Entire camp on a 'boil-water' alert. Gaping holes for underground water line work - not properly barricaded for children/pets.

This was a great campsite up next to the mountain. Also very close to White Sands park, which is about 20min away. There are about 40 campsites, about 10 or so with electric. I liked how they were all spread apart too, so your not right on top of one another. Each spot had a table and some had a covering/shade. There are a couple restrooms, and even had showers too, so its just a short walk, no matter what part of the campground you stay at. I really liked how it had numerous trails and history stories about who lived and how it came to be. There is even a little center or museum that has collections of this small cabin that was built here in 1800's. The landscape is cool with numerous small bushes, yuccas and very small trees, so no shade. Definitely would stay here again. I really enjoy all the NM state parks, and i want to make it my goal to experience them all.

I like to ruck up Dog Canyon periodically to Sunspot. Campground is very clean and the trails are maintained well. Love the fact that there are some hidden pools tucked back in the canyon that you can take a dip in. Bring cash with you for the entry fee.

Very nice state park near Alamagordo. I only went there to hike and there are 2 very good trails, one fairly easy and short and one very difficult and long. Very nice views of Dog canyon.

Very clean camp sites and shower/bathroom facilities. Nice and quite and awesome view of the stars at night. Close to White Sands.

You can enter this campsite at any time. It you arrive to White Sands at night and need a place to crash, this is your best bet. It's also a beautiful location, hidden between a desolate mountain range, with covered recreation/eating areas.

This park is beautiful! Highly recommend it - we made reservations so all we had to do was go to our site. It was a bit tricky to figure out until we realized that we needed to approach it from the opposite direction. We were staying just one night but it would be a great place to spend more time so you can hike. It is close to a White Sands National Monument so we were able to do the sunset stroll with a park ranger. The park itself is very clean and bathrooms are great. Well maintained. The views at sunset and sunrise are breathtaking.

Been camping here for many years on winter trips to southern NM. If the wind is relatively calm, this is a fun, easy camp spot near civilization. For me and my 2 small boys, this is a good spot for stargazing and an open view of the valley from Alamogordo towards El Paso. Bathrooms and facilities have always been clean. Close to white sands.

We thoroughly enjoyed OLMSP while visiting White Sands National Monument. The sites were well-spaced out and although many lacked shade, we didn't mind because it wasn't too hot. Our site had electric and water for $14/night, although we didn't need either and chose the spot because of the view. We hiked up the first .75 miles of the Dog Canyon trail and enjoyed that - lots of New Mexico plants to see and a nice view over the plains to White Sands.